Jay Griffith and Sarah Collett (of A Thoughtful Faith Podcast) sit with James W. McConkie to speak with him about his personal history and family. As a nephew of Bruce R. McConkie and Joseph B. Wirthlin, Jim has a unique perspective of the Church and the brethren and a valuable approach to the Gospel. Speaking about his faith, parenting, and his views on the historical Christ, Jim explains his approach to doubt and difficult questions.
In this episode Dr. Brian C. Hales discusses 12 myths regarding Joseph Smith’s practice of polygamy. Joseph Smith had a reputation as a womanizer. The Joseph Smith – Fanny Alger relationship was not a plural marriage. Joseph Smith’s polygamy was all about sex, in other words, “multiply and replenish the earth.” Joseph Smith had no children by his plural wives. Joseph Smith had sexual relations with 14 year olds. John C. Bennett was a polygamy insider in Nauvoo. None of Joseph Smith’s plural marriages were non-sexual “eternity-only” sealings. Joseph Smith’s teachings allow sexual polyandry. Some of Joseph Smith’s marriages included…
As the 3rd feature of our Mormon Stories Book Club series (organized by Heather Olson Beal), we feature Jane Barnes and her new book Falling in Love with Joseph Smith,accompanied by the following readers: Rob Lauer, Erin Hill, Cheryl Bruno, John Dehlin, and Dayna Patterson. Please click on the link to purchase your book through Amazon. A small amount of the proceeds go to help support Mormon Stories. ============== Title: Falling in Love with Joseph Smith Author: Jane Barnes Publisher: Tarcher Genre: Non-fiction Year: 2012 Pages: 304 Binding: Hardcover ISBN-13: 1585429252 Price: $16.85 Support Mormon Stories by purchasing Falling in Love…
A Thoughtful Faith’s Kylan Rice presents an interview with LDS author, filmmaker, and playwright Margaret Young. In this interview Margaret shares her story of how she became enthralled with Mormon Race Dynamics, and how she has spent her life as an advocate for Black Mormon issues in LDS culture. Margaret also discusses how gender dynamics present challenges to her and other LDS women, and how she reconciles these issues with her faith in the Gospel. Guest host Kylan Rice is a producer for BYU Radio, a poet, and a student of English literature. He also contributes, as a guest writer,…
In this episode John Dehlin interviews Denver Snuffer: a progressive, fundamentalist, non-polygamist Mormon lawyer who claims to have seen Christ. Denver is the author of several books including The Second Comforter: Conversing With the Lord Through the Veil and Passing the Heavenly Gift.
In our 5-part conversation with Brant Gardner about his new book entitled “The Gift and Power: Translating the Book of Mormon,” we discuss most of the major issues with the Book of Mormon including: Joseph Smith’s use of folk magic, the Book of Mormon translation process (including the peep stone in the hat), Book of Mormon anachronisms, DNA and race. This interview attempts to address many of the issues discussed in our interviews with Grant Palmer and Dr. Michael Coe. For a limited time Greg Kofford Books is offering The Gift and Power: Translating the Book of Mormon at a 20%…
Terryl Givens did graduate work at Cornell University in Intellectual History and UNC Chapel Hill where he received his PhD in Comparative Literature. He holds the James A. Bostwick chair of English, and is Professor of Literature and Religion at the University of Richmond, where he teaches courses in 19th century studies, and the Bible’s influence on western literature. As a commentator on Mormon religion and culture, he has appeared on PBS, NPR, and CNN. Author of ten books, his writing has been praised by the New York Times as “provocative reading,” and includes, most recently, When Souls had Wings,…
In this 2-part discussion, KC Kern (BookofMormonOnline.Net) speaks with Dr. Grant Hardy and his wife Heather Hardy. Grant Hardy is Professor of History and Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Asheville. He has a B.A. in Ancient Greek from Brigham Young University and Ph.D. in Chinese Language and Literature from Yale. He has authored Worlds of Bronze and Bamboo: Sima Qian’s Conquest of History; The Establishment of the Han Empire and Imperial China; and Understanding the Book of Mormon: A Reader’s Guide, as well as the Introduction for Royal Skousen’s recent Yale edition of the Book of Mormon. He has also…
In this 5-part series, Brian Johnston (StayLDS.com) interviews Jared Anderson. Jared is finishing his Ph.D. in Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, focusing on the Gospels and New Testament. Jared received an Honors Bachelor of Arts from the University of Utah, where he majored in Middle Eastern Studies with an emphasis in Hebrew, as well as learning Greek and Latin under Margaret Toscano. His honors thesis explored Joseph Smith’s study and use of languages.After graduating Magna cum Laude at the U of U, Jared completed his Master’s degree at UNC Chapel Hill with a thesis…
Please support Richard’s lastest film Triptych by donating here, and by purchasing his DVD collection here. Richard Dutcher burst into Mormon cultural consciousness ten years ago with the release of his independent film hit, God’s Army. During the ensuing decade, he has remained an intriguing figure to many Latter-day Saints, not only because of the high quality of the films he has continued to make, but also because of his public distancing himself from “Mormon cinema,” a film genre launched primarily because of his successes, as well as his more private (yet also public) distancing himself from the LDS Church and…
In this episode, John Hamer discusses the LDS Succession Crisis after Joseph Smith’s death, and the ground that it laid for the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (or Community of Christ). (Music provided courtesy of Clayton Pixton and Skype Pixton. If you can, please email them and thank them for the music…better yet…email them and then buy an album!!!!)
Morris Thurston is both a Harvard trained lawyer and a legal editor for the Joseph Smith Papers project. He is also one of the world’s leading scholars regarding Joseph Smith’s legal troubles during the Nauvoo era.
While much has been written about Mormonism’s founding prophet, there has never been a comprehensive edition of the first-hand documents produced by Joseph Smith Jr. (1805–1844), or for him by his scribes. With this in mind, the Historian’s Office of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has enlisted a team of scholars to locate, annotate and publish The Joseph Smith Papers. The project, which is funded by Larry H. Miller, has received the endorsement of The National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC). The managing editor of the project is Ronald K. Esplin and general editors are Esplin,…
Several months back, a listener named Lucas Dimick shared with me a short video he made. In his own words: “i am a practicing mormon and occasional visitor to ‘mormon stories’. i am a graduate student in the film, video, new media department at the art institute of chicago. last semester i made a 7 minute animation that sort of has a mormon / mormon-esqe theme to it.” Please check it out, and let us/Lucas know what you think.
In part 1 of this multi-part interview, Dr. Richard Bushman, the world’s foremost scholar on Joseph Smith and early Mormonism and the author of Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling, discusses his years as a Mormon historian–including his struggle with faith as a Harvard undergraduate, his decision to get a PhD in history, and his experiences with Leonard Arrington, Dialogue and Sunstone. He also discusses the role of candid, honest history within the modern LDS Church. To access this interview, subscribe via iTunes, or click here to listen to the audio directly. =================== As a side note, I’m simultaneously elated and…
This video is clearly gonna illicit strong reactions (both very positively and very negatively), but I think it’s powerfully well done, and worth the watch. The creator is listed as Seth Adam Smith. Let me know what you think. For the disbelievers, please keep your comments respectful.
Recently, Brigham Young University invited Darius Gray–one of the founders of the LDS Genesis Group, and a black Mormon for over 30 years–to deliver a presentation entitled, “Blacks and the LDS Priesthood.” An audio-based PowerPoint presentation of this podcast can be found here. In this podcast, Darius re-delivers this presentation, along with Margaret Young. Darius and Margaret are co-authors of a trilogy dealing with black Mormon history entitled: Standing on the Promises. 2 of the links mentioned in the podcast are: http://mormonstories.org/top10toughissues/blacks.html and http://www.ldsgenesisgroup.org/howtoreach.html Finally–Darius, Margaret, and Richard Dutcher are collaborating on a documentary about blacks and the Mormon church…and…
